Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

Sunday, August 9, 2026--San Antonio

I actually read Last First Kiss by Julian Winters two novels ago (between reading Buckeye and Helen of Nowhere), but I just noticed I never wrote about it here.  It is a gay novel set in present-day Atlanta.  The protagonist is a man whose family operates a prestigious event planning agency.  He has just become a planner within the company and has been assigned to plan a rushed wedding event--rushed because the husband-to-be is the son of a famous Hollywood director and is to work with him on a new film starting production in only 3 months.  In meeting with the couple, the wife-to-be's best friend shows up.  He happens to be Jamie--someone that Jordan, the planner, has known since they were adolescents.  But there is a troubled history there.  Jordan is now in his late 20s, and Jamie is the only person he has ever kissed--an event that happened years ago when they were experimenting as children.  All his life, Jordan has never felt right in relationships, and he has never forgotten the feeling he got from that kiss with Jamie.  In fact, a year or so earlier than the time of the story, he had approached Jamie (who has been Jordon's cousins best friend all along and who is openly gay), to see if their friendship could be renewed and if maybe an even closer relationship could be established.  But he did something that caused Jamie to cut off their friendship, and this is the first time they have interacted since.  It's a romance novel, so the reader knows something is going to happen.  They story is really about all the fits and false starts that are part of the relationship before they finally accept that they have been destined to be together from the time of that first kiss.  It was a fun, fast read--a good summer novel.  I have it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Land by Maggie O"Farrell

Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026--San Antonio

Land by Maggie O'Farrell has been praised by many others.  It is a novel set in Ireland from before and great potato famine to the rumblings of the war beginning against British rule.  It begins with two young characters who have been sent to the workhouse for children because everyone else in their families have died due to the famine.  It follows their travails in the work house and on through their lives and those of their children.  There is one adventure and misadventure after another over the decades.  The story involves so much of what was happening during those times:  The leavings by those who can to the Americas (and by those who are sold off to go there as indentured servants with no choice).  The great opportunities that some "unfortunates" accidentally get because it is discovered that they have unexpected skills (such as being able to read, write, or do mathematics).  The hardships that most families face because the feudal system of land still belonging to the aristocrats who lease parcels to farmers who can barely make the rent payments and often cannot and face expulsion.  The children of the artistocrats feeling entitled and that they can take advantage those poorer than them.  The priests who hold so much power over the people that their actions cannot be questioned even though they may not be aligned with the teachings of their religion and can create havoc for the people).  Superstitions related to the history of the druids is still a big part of people's daily lives.  The story follows those two original characters as they establish a family on a narrow peninsula of western Ireland, and it continues to cover the lives of the family members as the years pass.  It is a sweeping novel that will hold the reader's attention throughout.  My only concern is that the story of the last years covered seemed to be rushed in comparison to the rest of the novel.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman is a short novel which is longlisted for the Booker Prize this year.  Personally, I thought of it as a philosphy book presented in the form of a story with lots of metaphors.  It's the kind of book that makes you think and reason more than it entertains you.  It's good it was short, because if it had been 300 pages instead of half that, I would have quit it along the way.  But the chapters were short and each was a different look at the same situation from the perspective of different characters.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.  

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

Sunday, July 26, 2026--San Antonio

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan started somewhat slowly for me.  I considered quiting it.  But about 30% of the way through, it took off and I didn't want to put it down.  It is a sweeping novel about America while concentrating on two families and the town in Ohio were they live.  It covers time from the late 1930s to the approximately 1980.  It dwells on love and forgivness from the beginning to the end as it brings up so many situations that commonly happen over time--being abandoned as a child, keeping secrets from others within the family, going to war, falling in love, losing a loved one, cheating on a loved one, trying to save a marriage, having a spouse who doesn't understand or even believe something about you that is important to you, gay men marrying women in hopes they can be what society expects of them and the consequences for both the man and the wife (and the children) in such a marriage, changes taking place in society over time, wars that keep happening with severe consequences for those involved (not necessarily voluntarily) and too often going wrong over time, etc.  The characters are interesting.  The story is great.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

One Sun Only by Camille Bordas

Saturday, July 18, 2026--San Antonio

One Sun Only by Camille Bordas is a collection of short stories.   I read all of them, but it took me longer than usual.  Although each was well written, many did not keep me eager to continue reading.  I spent over a week reading the whole collection.  3 stars out of 5

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Monday, July 6, 2026--San Antonio

In my opinion, the very popular book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is not a good novel.  It has contradictions and and is not very logical (even if one believes in the theory it is based upon).  I spent most of my time reading it trying to determine why it was so popular.  But I think I know.  People may think they are reading a good novel, but instead they are reading a rather clever self-help book.  They overlook the problems with it as a novel and let the book guide themselves through analyzing their own lives.  They think about their own regrets.  They think about the dreams they have abaondoned.  They think about how unhappy they are rather than what they can do to improve their life experience.  The book guides the reader through the failures experienced by Nora that have led to her suicide effort.  It provides a framework for analyzing what her life might have been if she had made different choices along the way by actually temporarily living the alternative to see if it is better or not.  As she is doing that, the reader is likely reasoning through whether the alternative choices they might have made themselves and what would be good/what could go wrong under those circumstances.  By the end, the book is guiding the reader to make a decision about what they could do to better appreciate the life that they have have been living so far so that they can make the future better.  See, it is a fairly good self-help guide.  But as a novel, I give it only 3 stars out of 5.

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

Wednesday, July 1, 2026--San Antonio

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian is a novel from 3 years ago that was recommended by the NY Times, NPR, and others.  It takes place in New York in the late 1950s and is the story of a bisexual man and a gay man, both 25 years old, who fall in love during that period when it was dangerous to be known to be gay.  It's also the story of men from two different classes of society.  Nick is a crime reporter of for a newspaper who grew up in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood in a lower middle class family of Italian immigrants.  Andy has attended a private residential school and is the son of the owner/publisher of the newspaper and a deceased mother who was an international war correspondent.  Andy has been tasked by his father to "learn the ropes" of the business by working as a reporter for a few months so he can take his father's place in the top position.  It's the story of two opposites becoming attracted to each other.  It starts by Andy noting that Nick is one of the best reporters on the staff and moving into a desk across from him so they can work together as reporters.  That leads to them becoming friends and Andy introducing Nick to his fiance, Emily.  The 3 of them become friends together.  But just before the wedding, the plans fall apart when Emily, in London for an extended stay to care for a dying relative, falls in love with a doctor.  Nick and Andy have become so close as colleagues and friends that Nick takes on the task of trying to support Andy in his time of devastation and need.  He even invites Andy, who has been living alone in his mother's old apartment,  to come and live with him in the guest room he has in his Brooklyn apartment.  Rather than leave him alone there, Nick takes Andy on one of his Sunday outings to meet his Italian family.  Andy hasn't ever felt he was part of a family since his mother had left his father when he was very young, so the visit gives him a glimpse of what being in a real family is like.  As time passes Nick realizes that he has always been attracted to Andy who also starts noticing that he is attracted to Nick and may be something different from being just a straight man.  The story is built around the hesitancy of either to accept what is happening between them and the ways this hesitancy keeps either from making a move on the other.  It's an up and down rollercoaster ride all the way to the end of the novel.  Nick has always been hesitant to let anyone get close enough to him to know he is gay and even distances himself from his family because the question is always raised of when he will find a nice girl and settle down.  Andy is more open and flexible in his thinking.  It just takes lots of baby steps for either of them to be able to realize what has really happened and to get over their fears about ruining their friendship by being honest and trusting with each other.  There are laughable points throughout the book, and it is a good story.  It seems very realistic for the time period it takes place except for one major complaint I have.  Why does the author have them casually using the word "queer" in desribing themselves?  It wasn't until the late 1980s into the 1990s that LGBTQ+ people made the move to take control of that word and use it proudly as a self-identifier; before that it was used only by heterosexuals as a slur (similar to the changes in the use of the "N" word slur against Blacks).  How did the author and editors not realize the homosexual and bisexual characters in this story would not have called themselves "Queers" in the 1950s?  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.